Identifier: birdlifeglimpses00selo (find matches)
Title: Bird life glimpses
Year: 1905 (1900s)
Authors: Selous, Edmund
Subjects: Birds
Publisher: London, G. Allen
Contributing Library: Smithsonian Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: Smithsonian Libraries

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o see one hang at the entrancewith a feather in his bill, which is received by theother—just popping out its head—upon which heflies away. This is in the later stages, when thenest is being lined, and when the birds come, timeafter time, at intervals of a few minutes, each witha feather in its bill. White these feathers oftenare, and of some size (so that they look very con-spicuous). I have seen a bird, once, with two—twobroad, soft, white ones that curled round, backwards,on each side of its head, so as almost to hide it.Such feathers must be brought from some particularplace—a poultry-yard most probably—and bothbirds arriving with them, at the same time, is proof,or at least strong evidence, that they do their collect-ing in company. I have noticed, too, that if one birdcomes with a feather of a diff^erent kind — forinstance, a long straight one instead of a soft curledone—the other does too, showing how close is theassociation. At other times they bring lichen—with
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A PRETTY PAIRLong-Tailed Tits Building FALSE IMPRESSIONS 199 which the whole of the nest, outside, is stuck over—and so tiny are the pieces they carry, that I have,time after time, been unable to see them, eventhough sitting near and using the glasses. I havebeen so struck with this, that, sometimes, I havethought the lichen was carried rather in the mouththan in the bill, by which means it would bemoistened, and so stick the easier on the outsidesurface of the nest. It is most interesting to see the nest growingunder the joint labours of the two little architects,and it does so at a quicker pace than one wouldhave thought possible. At first it is a cup, merely,like most other nests—those of the chaffinch, gold-finch, linnet, &c.—and it is because the birds willnot leave off working, but continue to build, that thecup becomes deeper and deeper till it is a purse orsack. Here, as I imagine, we see the origin ofthe domed nest. It was not helped forward bysuccessive little step

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